I'm doing my fanancial planning assuming I will live to be 90 and will leave assets to my heirs. I'm also assuming SSI is broke by the time I retire. If I live significantly longer than 90 AND SSI is broke then my heirs probably get nothing but harassing letters.

And the next big civil rights debate we need to have a public discourse around is age discrimination in the workplace. As the retirement age increases and Wall Street gambles away out 401k savings, people are working later in life just to afford the bare essentials. Forget Social Security - the system is just hobbled with fraud.

so what?everyone has social security check and medicare. their living conditions and lifestyle might have to change because they didnt plan?? HAHAHAHHA who cares. dumb people get what dumb people deserve.

CSMMy house will be paid off by the end of this year. My other loan will be paid off by the end of this year.So debt free. I have a good amount in my 401k and will be able to start saving even more come 2013.I have 15-20 years before I retire. If that isnt long enough to prepare, then I am doing everything wrong./CSM

While environmental factors have contributed to the increase on longevity, most of the increase is due to better treatment of chronic diseases. We've all seen the elderly who take a fist full of pills several times each day. Were they not doing that, they would probably not live as long as they do, but die much closer to a lower live expectancy: about 72 for men and 78 for women. I for one do not intend to do as so many elderly people to and spend 30-40% of their time in doctors' waiting rooms in an attempt to stave off the inevitable.

Also, discount most of the "financial advice" that retirement planners give you. They will tell you that you need at least 80% of the highest salary you have earned in your working career and that you should plan on having this income for at least 25 year after retirement. It is sound advice for someone who earns between $25K and $50K. But someone earning $120K, it makes no sense. Once the kids are gone and the mortgage us paid, there are no major monthly expenses. A retired couple can live quite comfortably on less that $50K per year. $100K is overkill unless one wants to leave quite a bit of cash to their kids.

When you look at the sheer enormity of retirement, it's easy to say "fark it."

You have to assume massive medical expenses for yourself, your spouse, or both. And if you have the money, try finding some vehicle to store it that won't be withered away by inflation, or decimated by a falling stock market, or tied up in a property bubble.

Retirement is something rich people do. The rest of us have kids. And our sincere hope is that at least one of us thinks fondly enough of us to spare a bedroom.

Once again, we missed a great opportunity when the GOP axed the death panels. Sure, millions of retirees would have been ground into a nutritious paste and fed to pigs; but the important point is, my taxes would no longer be wasted supporting unproductive members of society.

We need to launch old people into space. Send them on course for planets that can potentially sustain life while not having them burden Earth's ecosystems. Will it save money? Who knows? But it's really, really fun.

I'd rather have a private account than one the government can loot at will, and I do. It's called a Roth IRA and SS could go under tomorrow and I'd be fine. And before you ask, no, I won't give up my SS when I'm entitled to it. I was forced into it when I'd have been much better off putting the payments into private investments, so I'm taking it, relative pittance that it will be.

cubic_spleen:Once again, we missed a great opportunity when the GOP axed the death panels. Sure, millions of retirees would have been ground into a nutritious paste and fed to pigs people; but the important point is, my taxes would no longer be wasted supporting unproductive members of society.

JackieRabbit:Also, discount most of the "financial advice" that retirement planners give you. They will tell you that you need at least 80% of the highest salary you have earned in your working career and that you should plan on having this income for at least 25 year after retirement. It is sound advice for someone who earns between $25K and $50K. But someone earning $120K, it makes no sense. Once the kids are gone and the mortgage us paid, there are no major monthly expenses. A retired couple can live quite comfortably on less that $50K per year. $100K is overkill unless one wants to leave quite a bit of cash to their kids.

this this and MORE THISonce my house is paid for, my expenses drop like a ton of feathers. monthly assessment + property taxes might be 6-700 a month? biggest expense will be medicare gap insurance and drug copays?? LOLprobably time to look into supplemental medical insurance

My big problem with deciding how much money to put away is knowing how much I'm going to NEED. JackieRabbit says $50k a year will do it....I'm not so sure. Even without any debt (mortgage, cars, etc), once you start adding up taxes, insurance, food, cell phones, health-related costs, HOA or condo fees, cable, internet, modest travel, etc., plus inflation, who knows what that number is going to be when I'm retirement age.

My wife and I max out our 401(k)s yearly, and have for awhile, so we have a decent number (even with the horrible stock market performance) aside, and I'm only in my mid-30s. Problem is, I'm not sure I'll ever get to a number where I'll feel relaxed enough to think, "Okay, now I never need to work again and I can live off what I have put away". Stock market dips, you're back to work. Outliving my money is a real concern.

Other than real estate, what can you put your money in that would pay you an income? You could buy an annuity, but those are generally bad investments. Very few companies still have reliable pensions. It's a wonder anyone can retire.

To be fair to some of those retirees, they actually had some savings, until the Great Financial Clusterfark of 2008 happened. And/or they lost their jobs. And/or their former employer went bankrupt and stopped paying a pension. Also, lots of people's "wealth" is mostly in their house. Still is.

It's hard to save for retirement when you have barely enough money to cover the daily expenses and everything else you could possibly do to try to have some sort of cushion goes straight down the crapper through no fault of your own.

I've been putting 10% of my salary in the stupid 401K's for years, just like I'm supposed to.

The rich bastard "job creators" have almost wiped it out at least twice. Both the low risk/low reward and the high risk/high reward accounts. I have less in there then I've spent on it in 20 years, even with company match. I have no faith in the system, at all. It's farking rigged. My retirement plan is death. And I may consider taking someone with me.

namatad:JackieRabbit: Also, discount most of the "financial advice" that retirement planners give you. They will tell you that you need at least 80% of the highest salary you have earned in your working career and that you should plan on having this income for at least 25 year after retirement. It is sound advice for someone who earns between $25K and $50K. But someone earning $120K, it makes no sense. Once the kids are gone and the mortgage us paid, there are no major monthly expenses. A retired couple can live quite comfortably on less that $50K per year. $100K is overkill unless one wants to leave quite a bit of cash to their kids.

this this and MORE THISonce my house is paid for, my expenses drop like a ton of feathers. monthly assessment + property taxes might be 6-700 a month? biggest expense will be medicare gap insurance and drug copays?? LOLprobably time to look into supplemental medical insurance

Right now good gap insurance with nursing home benefits runs about $4k/month for two people, so unless you can live off of

mytdawg:I've been putting 10% of my salary in the stupid 401K's for years, just like I'm supposed to.

The rich bastard "job creators" have almost wiped it out at least twice. Both the low risk/low reward and the high risk/high reward accounts. I have less in there then I've spent on it in 20 years, even with company match. I have no faith in the system, at all. It's farking rigged. My retirement plan is death. And I may consider taking someone with me.

FTFA: These gaps include, the report notes, "a failure to fully understand the variability in life expectancy, and to appreciate that about half of the people will outlive the average life expectancy of their age cohort."

For instance:

•54% of retirees do not believe they will live as long as the average person their age and sex.•31% of retirees cite a life expectancy that is longer than the population average•46% of pre-retirees think they will live below the population average•41% of pre-retirees believe they will live longer than an average person of their age and sex.

So, about half think they will live longer than average, and about half think they will live less than average...

Anyways unless you can live off of less than 80% + $48k/year the 80% is probably good advice even for someone making six figures. I plan to travel a lot in retirement (I'm 33 and have visited 37/50 states) so my planning is done assuming 100% of pre-retirement income.

JackieRabbit:They will tell you that you need at least 80% of the highest salary

Bingo! I've spent an average of less than 20% of my highest income during my retirement per year. No mortgage payment and a smaller house means lower expenses across the board. No car payments. I pay cash for used and run them until they die. With proper maintenance that can be a decade or more. Real estate taxes are my largest bill.

My paternal grandmother lived to be 101, outlived 3 of 4 children, and was shipped around from grandkid to grandkid until she dropped. She obsessed all the time about outliving her money, having everyone else pay her way, never once offering to pay for groceries or gas, begging doctors for free samples, etc.

After her death, her assets added up to over 500K. Once it was divided over all the heirs, it wasn't much to anyone, but for the ones she had mooched off for years, it was extremely galling. Basically, she taught all of us how NOT to act.

namatad:"Without changes, in 2033 the Social Security Trust Fund will be able to pay only about 75 cents for each dollar of scheduled benefits."

I guess 75% is much better than 0%

Pretty sad when you consider how much of your earnings are automatically confiscated for this horrible retirement program. Even the worst savings accounts with a local bank will earn 1% interest annually.

I work in the benefits dept. at a university. I have been doing this job for 6 months now, but I am still amazed at the number of 50-65 y/o people that come in, wanting to liquidate their retirement - usually for something retarded like their daughter's wedding, or a long vacation. Then again, these are also usually the folks who get to this age and have less than $20k in the fund - because they've borrowed on it/drained it before.

I will admit, I'm glad of this soul-sucking, thankless job for one thing...I have seen the deperate situation that wiping your ass with your future can cause and it scared me...caused me to rethink a lot of my expenditures and I put 10% of my pay aside each month, even though I never thought I could afford to.